Speaker 1: We originally met and interviewed Faye Jacobs at the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two Innocence Network Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, and her
Speaker 1: episode was released on June sixth, twenty twenty two. Fortunately enough,
Speaker 1: we caught up with her again at the conference in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: I am here at the Innocence Network Conference twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three in Phoenix with Faye Jacobs.
Speaker 3: Hey, how are you doing? Finding you It's so awesome
Speaker 3: to be bad. I know we met a person here
Speaker 3: last year. It was great. So what have you been
Speaker 3: up to?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I have been running like a chicken
Speaker 4: with his head cut off. I don't know if I
Speaker 4: mentioned the last time we was here, I had started
Speaker 4: my own business, Innocence to Transportation Service, and now I
Speaker 4: contract to schools transporting students and then nursing homes as well.
Speaker 4: I mean, wow, it is growing so big, bigger than
Speaker 4: what I expected. I am now in the process of
Speaker 4: getting a limousine, a party bus, and a tour bus
Speaker 4: for my services.
Speaker 3: Wow. That's amazing. So you're an incredible entrepreneur now.
Speaker 2: But one of the things about your case was you
Speaker 2: were freed but not exonerated.
Speaker 3: Are you exonerated.
Speaker 4: Yet I am not exonerated. We now have a new
Speaker 4: governor in Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee, who waiting on her to
Speaker 4: be in office at least about a year, and then
Speaker 4: will present my clemency application. We will do an application
Speaker 4: that will go before the Parole Board, and the parole
Speaker 4: Board would do their recommendations, and from there they will
Speaker 4: send their recommendations to Sarah. I truly believe somebody's gonna
Speaker 4: exonerate me.
Speaker 3: You know what does that like? To be free but
Speaker 3: not free? It's complicated.
Speaker 4: It's bittersweet because you know, I still have obstacles against me.
Speaker 4: I still have issues before I even started my own business,
Speaker 4: trying to apply for other jobs because when they do
Speaker 4: a background check of courts, a felony comes back. And
Speaker 4: even with housing, this conviction still hangs over my head.
Speaker 4: I think the last time I was here, I wasn't.
Speaker 4: But I am on the board of directors of a
Speaker 4: Journey to New Life. It's an organization helping men and
Speaker 4: women's coming out of prison to get housing and jobs.
Speaker 4: It's a wonderful, wonderful organization.
Speaker 2: I'm sure things pop up all the time. You don't
Speaker 2: even think about that. It impacts you.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I want to adopt once again. This conviction
Speaker 4: is just not letting me do the things that I
Speaker 4: desire to do.
Speaker 3: When I talked to you last time, you were with
Speaker 3: your partner.
Speaker 4: Tiffany's still going strong. Tiffany has now moved in, so
Speaker 4: she now reside in Kansas City with me.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you guys are going strong.
Speaker 2: You're gonna adopt a kid when you get exonerated, Yeah,
Speaker 2: hopefully to go Yeah.
Speaker 3: Perfect.
Speaker 4: And if not a kid, a bunch of grandkids.
Speaker 3: Oh perfect, exactly, she has kids.
Speaker 1: Yes, we'll have her transportation service linked in the bio
Speaker 1: for folks in the Kansas City area. And please stay
Speaker 1: tuned for new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling
Speaker 1: starting in January of twenty twenty four. Now Faye Jacob's
Speaker 1: story as it originally aired, we hope Governor Huckabee is
Speaker 1: moved to grant her a well deserved clemency.
Speaker 5: Like I've been thinking a lot about, you know, the
Speaker 5: difficult decision of having to decide if you want to
Speaker 5: take an Outford plea, if you want to take any
Speaker 5: kind of plea.
Speaker 3: I mean, if I was put in that situation.
Speaker 5: Would I stay in prison to fight for my innocence
Speaker 5: knowing I might never get out, or take a deal
Speaker 5: get out, and then you can't fight for your innocence
Speaker 5: after that.
Speaker 6: It's a literal Sophie's choice. Maggie, right, I mean, you
Speaker 6: have this intense pressure. You know that they have the
Speaker 6: ability to say, Hey, we're going to leave you sitting
Speaker 6: in jail, in prison for a year or two years
Speaker 6: or more while you await your retrial. Many, many strong
Speaker 6: willed and brave and brilliant people have taken the plea
Speaker 6: because there's really no way out and they just want
Speaker 6: to go home out. Yeah, they have to go home.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I didn't comprehend that I was going to prison for
Speaker 4: the rest of my life. I'm thinking to myself, are
Speaker 4: you saying that I can never be with my parents again.
Speaker 4: I can never go back to my bed, you know,
Speaker 4: my home. So I'm losing all my friends. I mean,
Speaker 4: all this is going to be taken. Are you kidding me.
Speaker 7: From lava for good?
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Lakwanda Fay
Speaker 1: Jacobs on the evening of February ninth, nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: Kevin Gaddy and Tony Davis were walking down the street
Speaker 1: when a car pulled up. A man and a woman
Speaker 1: got out and held them at gunpoint. They demanded the
Speaker 1: jack Kevin Gaddy was wearing. It was a Chicago Bulls
Speaker 1: starter jacket. In the nineteen nineties, these satin jackets were
Speaker 1: a status symbol. As Kevin was handing his jacket over,
Speaker 1: a struggle ensued and he was shot in the chest.
Speaker 1: Around the same time, Lakwanda Fay Jacobs and her mother
Speaker 1: were on their way to church when they saw police
Speaker 1: commotion near Fay's house.
Speaker 7: They stopped to see what was going on.
Speaker 1: As Faye got out of the car, an officer approached
Speaker 1: her and asked her who she was. Fay was instantly
Speaker 1: arrested and taken down to the police station for questioning,
Speaker 1: but she had an alibi, and the woman they should
Speaker 1: have been looking for was at least fifteen years older
Speaker 1: than Fay, but it didn't matter. Fay was eventually charged
Speaker 1: and convicted of the murder of Kevin Gaddy.
Speaker 4: They knew all along that I was innocent, but just
Speaker 4: wanting to use me as an example to other young juveniles. Therefore,
Speaker 4: I was railroaded into the system. I am Lakwanda Faye Jacobs.
Speaker 4: Nineteen ninety two. I was arrested for capitol felloni murder
Speaker 4: of a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: But Kwanda Faye Jacobs was born in Little Rock, Arkansas,
Speaker 1: on February twenty second, nineteen seventy five. She was the
Speaker 1: baby of a big family, six boys and six girls.
Speaker 4: I was always picked on by my older siblings, but
Speaker 4: I consider myself stronger than my other siblings, even though
Speaker 4: I was the baby. I come from a great family.
Speaker 4: I was raising the church. My dad was started off
Speaker 4: as a deacon in the church and ended up becoming
Speaker 4: assistant pastor. And I was deeply involved at the age
Speaker 4: of four years.
Speaker 1: Old, facing in the church choir, and was an outgoing
Speaker 1: child and teenager.
Speaker 4: I'm just a people person. That's just the type of
Speaker 4: personality I've always had. I was a friends with everybody
Speaker 4: from church people. I even had friends that were gang members,
Speaker 4: you know, just a typical teenager. I had fights, I
Speaker 4: had boyfriends, I did a lot, you know. That's who
Speaker 4: Fey was, and.
Speaker 1: Like many kids, she had lots of different visions for
Speaker 1: her future.
Speaker 4: I wanted to be a nurse at one time, I
Speaker 4: wanted to be a beautician because I loved doing my
Speaker 4: doll's hair, you know, so of course I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm going to be a beautician. My grandfather was a
Speaker 4: barbera and my grandmother was a beautician. I even dreamed
Speaker 4: of being in the army one day. But then later on,
Speaker 4: as I got older in my teenage, I was like, man,
Speaker 4: I don't want to go do that. You know.
Speaker 1: In high school, she played on the junior varsity volleyball team,
Speaker 1: and she says she was incredibly popular and other students
Speaker 1: looked up to her.
Speaker 4: I dreamed of graduating, going to the prom, going to dance,
Speaker 4: and you know, I could have possibly been the queen
Speaker 4: because I was so popular. But you know, those are
Speaker 4: things that will rob from me that opportunity.
Speaker 1: On the morning of February ninth, nineteen ninety two, sixteen
Speaker 1: year old Faye got up and went to church to
Speaker 1: attend service. It was Sunday and she had planned to
Speaker 1: sing at two services that day. Afterward, her mother picked
Speaker 1: her up from the house Fae rented with her brother.
Speaker 1: They got back to Faye's mom's apartment at two pm.
Speaker 1: Fay's friend picked her up shortly after that and they
Speaker 1: ran some errands, including the laundromat, and back to her
Speaker 1: friend's house. He dropped Faye back at her mom's place
Speaker 1: at around five point thirty. Her Sunday was pretty packed.
Speaker 4: I had another service to attend that night. My mom
Speaker 4: and I were going to us singing at another church.
Speaker 1: Fay's MoMA wrapped home shortly after and found Fay relaxing
Speaker 1: on the couch. Fay was still in her white church clothes,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, over a mile away, a
Speaker 1: situation was unfolding that would change Fay's life forever. Seventeen
Speaker 1: year old Kevin Gaddy and his friend Tony Davis, who
Speaker 1: was fourteen, were walking down the street when a gray
Speaker 1: car pulled up. A man and a woman got out.
Speaker 1: The woman had a gun and they demanded the jacket.
Speaker 1: Kevin Gaddy was wearing a Chicago Bulls starter jacket. As
Speaker 1: Kevin was handing it over, he put his hand in
Speaker 1: his coat pocket to get his brush. That's when things
Speaker 1: got messy, and the woman shot Kevin in the chest.
Speaker 1: On their way to their second church event of the day,
Speaker 1: Fay and her mom passed the crime scene right outside
Speaker 1: Faye's house, so they stopped to see what was going on.
Speaker 1: As Faye got out of the car, a police officer
Speaker 1: grabbed her.
Speaker 4: And I was instantly through on the car put in handcuffs.
Speaker 4: At this time, I didn't know that a shooting had occurred.
Speaker 4: I was already a handcuffsed. Once I said who I
Speaker 4: was and that I lived there too as well, at
Speaker 4: the house that they were at, I was put in
Speaker 4: the backseat of the car and taken to the Little
Speaker 4: Rock Police department. Not knowing what is conna.
Speaker 1: At the precinct, the police asked Faye if they could
Speaker 1: do a gun shot residue test on.
Speaker 4: Her, and so after my gun residue was negative, they
Speaker 4: was like, well, we're gonna let her go home, you know.
Speaker 4: And they's like, if you hear anything about a shooting,
Speaker 4: let us know. And I was like, who shot? What
Speaker 4: is conna?
Speaker 1: It wasn't until days later that Fay learned it was
Speaker 1: her friend Kevin, who was shot and killed outside of
Speaker 1: her house.
Speaker 4: Kevin and I I were both the same age, but
Speaker 4: he was a few months older than me, and he
Speaker 4: was real known for his scooter and his skills with basketball.
Speaker 4: I always, even as a kid, I used to say
Speaker 4: you're gonna go big Kevin, you know, because he was
Speaker 4: so good at basketball, you know. But like I said,
Speaker 4: from kindergarten to seventh grade, him and I went to
Speaker 4: school together.
Speaker 1: Kevin was pronounced dead less than an hour after he
Speaker 1: was shot.
Speaker 4: And it was so unbelievable because I knew he was
Speaker 4: such a good kid, he was a good friend, and
Speaker 4: it was just very devastating to learn that he had
Speaker 4: been shot.
Speaker 1: During their investigation into Kevin's murder, police found at least
Speaker 1: eight eyewitnesses who saw the shooting. The descriptions of the
Speaker 1: woman who fired the gun varied, but most agreed she
Speaker 1: was in her thirties with scars under her eyes, and
Speaker 1: that she was wearing dark clothing, including a black hat.
Speaker 1: Tony Davis was the eyewitness closest to the shooting, and
Speaker 1: on that very day described the woman as quote black,
Speaker 1: mid thirties, approximately five foot eight, heavy billed, medium complexion,
Speaker 1: wearing a dark ski cap and bluish gray jacket and pants,
Speaker 1: with frizzy hair. Yet Fay, a young teenager wearing entirely
Speaker 1: different clothing, had already been to the police station and
Speaker 1: been questioned, so investigators had her photo and showed it
Speaker 1: to witnesses. Five of them said Fay was not the shooter.
Speaker 1: Tony Davis was shown a picture of Fay and two times,
Speaker 1: once on the day of the crime and again four
Speaker 1: days later. He was unable to make an identification. But
Speaker 1: then nine days after the shooting, the police brought him
Speaker 1: back in and again they showed him a photo lineup,
Speaker 1: and this time he identified Faye as the shooter. They
Speaker 1: had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Speaker 4: I was going to school and this day I wasn't
Speaker 4: feeling well and I was at my sister's house and
Speaker 4: my mom called my sister and said, the police has
Speaker 4: come to my job looking for fee.
Speaker 7: For murder.
Speaker 4: And I was like, murder. I haven't killed anybody. And
Speaker 4: so my mom came to my sister house. We called
Speaker 4: my dad, we called my pastor, and we went to
Speaker 4: the police station just to clear my name, you know,
Speaker 4: to tell them I haven't did anything. You know. I
Speaker 4: mean when I tell you, I had no clue that
Speaker 4: I was even a suspect, and you know, and that
Speaker 4: could be what. I was so young, but I didn't
Speaker 4: commit the crime, So why would I even think that
Speaker 4: I'm a suspect. I had no knowledge of it, and
Speaker 4: so we went to the jail to clear my name,
Speaker 4: and at that time they arrested me. They did not
Speaker 4: allow me to clear my name. They arrested me and
Speaker 4: charged me with capital felay murder and set my bund
Speaker 4: at one million dollars. Okay, I'm sixteen, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: I had never been to jail before in my life,
Speaker 4: and so I'm scared.
Speaker 8: I'm very scared.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
Speaker 1: in the communities where we work and live. In light
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Before trial, Faye
Speaker 1: was appointed public defender James Cluet to represent her. At
Speaker 1: the time of his appointment, Kluet was representing a client
Speaker 1: by the name of Sean Riggins. As it happens, Riggins
Speaker 1: and his brother had been among the witnesses on the
Speaker 1: street when Kevin was murdered. Two weeks later, Riggins was
Speaker 1: arrested for an unrelated crime.
Speaker 7: At that time.
Speaker 1: He ended up telling police that he'd seen the shooter
Speaker 1: and that she was actually younger than thirty, closer.
Speaker 7: To fifteen or sixteen.
Speaker 1: He was the only person to say that, and when
Speaker 1: investigator showed him a photo spread of suspects, he identified
Speaker 1: Faye as the shooter. Now this part gets a little confusing,
Speaker 1: so follow carefully. Not only as Fay's attorney James Cluett
Speaker 1: representing two clients involved in the same case, a clear
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, but he also asked Faye to lie
Speaker 1: for Shawn Riggins. Fay was in jail with a woman
Speaker 1: named Burt Walker, one of Riggins's co defendants in another case.
Speaker 1: Cluette approached Fay with an offer. He asked her to
Speaker 1: say that Bertie had told her she committed the crime alone.
Speaker 1: In exchange, he said Riggins would not testify against Faye
Speaker 1: about Kevin's murder, but Fay rejected the offer. She refused
Speaker 1: to lie and asked for a new lawyer. She was
Speaker 1: appointed attorney Bill MacArthur. James Cluett was eventually disbarred for
Speaker 1: separate issues. Fay's trial started a year later in April
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. A man named Clifton Thomas was originally
Speaker 1: charged with Faye as her alleged accomplice, but the charges
Speaker 1: against him were eventually dropped.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to court and I'm like, are you serious?
Speaker 4: I can't believe this. Why are they doing this to me?
Speaker 4: And the judge keeps my bond at a million and
Speaker 4: he states we're charging her as an adult. I couldn't
Speaker 4: believe that this was happening.
Speaker 1: Prosecutors Howard Coopman and John Miller presented no forensic evidence
Speaker 1: linking Fade to the crime. They were likeed heavily on
Speaker 1: the eyewitness statements of Tony Davis, who was with Kevin
Speaker 1: that evening, and Sean Riggins. When fe goes to court,
Speaker 1: news media is everywhere, She says. The case was high
Speaker 1: profile because of a slew of killings of young people
Speaker 1: in Arkansas at the time.
Speaker 4: Arkansas was on the rise of gang balance back in
Speaker 4: the late eighties early nineties, and so of course law
Speaker 4: enforcements was forced to do something about those crimes. So
Speaker 4: they had a thing called banging in Arkansas. It was
Speaker 4: like the Arkansas was like a small Los Angeles with
Speaker 4: the crips and the bloods, and they had videos and
Speaker 4: they still had these videos. You can pull them up
Speaker 4: on YouTube called bang It in Arkansas.
Speaker 7: So I did.
Speaker 1: This is the County coroner for Little Rock, Arkansas, on
Speaker 1: one of the films several.
Speaker 9: Years ago, when I saw the death rate was increasing,
Speaker 9: but the victims were becoming much younger and younger, and
Speaker 9: began to see tattoos and brands on the victims, and
Speaker 9: began to notice that the violence just was increasing, and
Speaker 9: drive by shootings and random shootings and retaliation killings, and
Speaker 9: it just went on and on. Until nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 9: we had a record rate of homicides in Little Rock,
Speaker 9: and it looks we've broken the record in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 9: and it's.
Speaker 10: Just gone on and on and on.
Speaker 1: In fact, a half hour earlier and a few blocks
Speaker 1: away from Kevin Gaddy's murder, there was another potentially related crime.
Speaker 1: Around five pm, Little Rock Police Department responded to an
Speaker 1: aggravated assault where eyewitnesses told police there was a female perpetrator,
Speaker 1: a male accomplice, and guess what a gray car. It's
Speaker 1: unclear what happened with that case and something else related
Speaker 1: to this crime. To help you understand, starting in the
Speaker 1: late eighties, sports starter jackets were a hot commodity. An
Speaker 1: article in The New York Times from February of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety discusses the phenomenon, calling it quote an increasingly pervasive
Speaker 1: kind of urban crime, robberies by young people willing to
Speaker 1: kill for clothes end quote. They cite that at the
Speaker 1: time these jackets went from ninety to two hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which today would be about two hundred to four hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: So Kevin Gaddy becoming a target for his jacket that
Speaker 1: night was not necessarily unusual at the time. However, Fay's
Speaker 1: attorney failed at making a case that Fay was caught
Speaker 1: in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that
Speaker 1: she did not commit the crime. Fay was able to
Speaker 1: testify on her own behalf, however, and she tried to
Speaker 1: make the case for herself that she did not kill
Speaker 1: her friend.
Speaker 4: In my little mind, I'm thinking that, you know, soon
Speaker 4: as I go to court, I can just tell the
Speaker 4: judge that I didn't do this and uc and I'll
Speaker 4: go home. But the reality, that's not how it works,
Speaker 4: you know, but I didn't know that, I really believe
Speaker 4: that I was going to get out of there.
Speaker 1: On April twenty first, nineteen ninety three, Fate was convicted
Speaker 1: of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole.
Speaker 7: She was just sixteen years old.
Speaker 4: I didn't I didn't comprehend that I was going to
Speaker 4: prison for the rest of my life. You know. It
Speaker 4: was until I got back to the jail that the
Speaker 4: jailer told me, you know, you're not going to ever
Speaker 4: get out. You know you're going to jail, you know.
Speaker 4: And so I was broken inside, you know, had been
Speaker 4: ripped apart.
Speaker 7: You know, are you telling me?
Speaker 4: I'm thinking to myself, are you saying that I can
Speaker 4: never be with my parents again.
Speaker 7: I can never go.
Speaker 4: Back to my bed, you know, my home. So I'm
Speaker 4: losing all my friends. I mean, all this is going
Speaker 4: to be taken. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Fay's world had turned completely upside down.
Speaker 4: I had many days of crying. So when I was
Speaker 4: first put in, I was put in a cell all
Speaker 4: by myself because I was sixteen. But days later I
Speaker 4: was sent to an adult place because I was charged
Speaker 4: at an adult and so of course I had adults
Speaker 4: tunt me and bothered me. I had even got jumped
Speaker 4: on it in the county jail, you know, because of
Speaker 4: this high profile and that's the juvenile that killed the
Speaker 4: guy for his jacket, you know, that's how.
Speaker 7: It was labeled.
Speaker 4: And so I would go to my room, I would cry.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't let people see me cry because if they
Speaker 4: saw that, that a show a sign a weakness, and
Speaker 4: they would really take advantage of you and do things.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I was very scared.
Speaker 1: Eventually, Fay settled into the prison environment and just like
Speaker 1: in high school, her outgoing personality and love of people
Speaker 1: got her through. By the time she had been there
Speaker 1: for several years, she had started making a name for
Speaker 1: herself as a generous person to those coming into the system.
Speaker 4: And so a lot of ladies come in there and
Speaker 4: they don't have the headphones and things like that. So
Speaker 4: I always had extra so I can share with the
Speaker 4: other ladies.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, Tiffany Woods came to prison.
Speaker 8: I was incarcerated for DWIS. So they had moved me
Speaker 8: in the barracks with a and in order to watch TV,
Speaker 8: you have to have a radio. Well, I didn't have
Speaker 8: any family outside you know, to actually send me any
Speaker 8: money to buy me a radio. So I've seen fayees
Speaker 8: all bubbly playing games and stuff, and I was like,
Speaker 8: excuse me, ma'am, can I borrow your radio? And so
Speaker 8: she was like, yeah, it's over there on my bed.
Speaker 8: So that started our friendship.
Speaker 1: Fay and Tiffany hit it off, and when Tiffany got out,
Speaker 1: she promised Fay she would write her.
Speaker 4: You know, being in prison, you meet people and people
Speaker 4: tell you I'm going to write you, I'm going to
Speaker 4: support you, you know, all the way, and so you
Speaker 4: hear that all the time. And I had been let
Speaker 4: down so many times. Well, but Tiffany, Tiffany left and
Speaker 4: she wrote me, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: this girl really wrote me. And then she sent me
Speaker 4: a phone number and said I could call her. And
Speaker 4: I could not believe it because that was something that
Speaker 4: had never happened throughout my whole incoseration, to be able
Speaker 4: to have contact with another resident that had once been there.
Speaker 8: It's a smile loyalty. If I tell you I'm going
Speaker 8: to do something, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1: Tiffany and Fey maintained their friendship over the years, all
Speaker 1: the while Fay fought for her She filed appeal after
Speaker 1: appeal after appeal for reasons including ineffective assistance of counsel
Speaker 1: face as her second attorney, Bill MacArthur, failed to meet
Speaker 1: with her before trial and failed to file any discovery
Speaker 1: motions or conduct an investigation. He failed to show why
Speaker 1: Fay could not have committed this crime, starting with the
Speaker 1: description of the shooter. The shooter, according to Tony Davis's
Speaker 1: testimony at the trial, was a black woman with scars
Speaker 1: under her eyes and light brownish red curly hair peeking
Speaker 1: out of a black hat, and she was wearing a
Speaker 1: big winter coat and pants. This description does not fit
Speaker 1: Fait at all. She had no scars under her eyes,
Speaker 1: was wearing white church clothes, and her hair was in
Speaker 1: a top knot for.
Speaker 10: Folks who were very familiar with black hair African American hair.
Speaker 10: She couldn't have gotten her hair up into this very smooth,
Speaker 10: beautiful top knot if it had been a red curly
Speaker 10: dew under a cap just hours earlier.
Speaker 1: Right, this is Trisia Bushnell. She's the executive director of
Speaker 1: the Midwest Innocence Project known as the MIP.
Speaker 10: But none of those things ever come out, none of
Speaker 10: those things are ever investigated or brought to the jury's attention.
Speaker 10: You know, when you look at Phase case and you
Speaker 10: look at the evidence, you can really just think there's
Speaker 10: really no good evidence here, right. You can look at
Speaker 10: it and say, there's no good evidence. So how does
Speaker 10: she get convicted? Well, part of it is it's just racism,
Speaker 10: very simple, right, But you have a system that has
Speaker 10: a young black girl up there and the state is
Speaker 10: saying she did it, and what does that read like
Speaker 10: to jurors?
Speaker 1: The bias appears to have started with the cops who
Speaker 1: arrested Fay on the spot, and Fay feels strongly that
Speaker 1: there was racial profiling involved. Frisha is currently Phase attorney.
Speaker 1: The MIP took Phase case in twenty fourteen when they
Speaker 1: reviewed it and realized it's stunk of a wrongful conviction.
Speaker 10: So there's actually were a lot of witnesses to this crime.
Speaker 10: And when we went and talked to people, five other
Speaker 10: people who actually also knew Fay so it was not her,
Speaker 10: including Sean Riggan's brother who was standing with him at
Speaker 10: the car and said we couldn't see any from where
Speaker 10: we were.
Speaker 7: At the car.
Speaker 1: Sean Riggins, remember had told police that Fay was the shooter,
Speaker 1: but he ultimately did recant his identification.
Speaker 10: And that was the basis of new evidence that we
Speaker 10: used when we filed a federal habeas petition asking them
Speaker 10: to overturn Fhay's conviction. Filed that in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: The MIP also brought up in the appeal the four
Speaker 1: additional eyewitnesses who said the shooter was not Fay and
Speaker 1: who were never called to testify at trial. However, before
Speaker 1: a judge could respond to the petition, there was a
Speaker 1: new development. In twenty twelve, the United States Supreme Court
Speaker 1: ruled in millervers Alabama, that juveniles cannot be sentenced to
Speaker 1: mandatory life without parole like Fay was. Those who had
Speaker 1: received this sentence are entitled to a re sentencing hearing.
Speaker 1: But Fay had a difficult decision to make. If she
Speaker 1: was resentenced and released based on the time she had
Speaker 1: already served, she could not fight her innocence claim. And remember,
Speaker 1: there were two people involved in the crime, a man
Speaker 1: and a woman, and a man was originally charged with Fay.
Speaker 10: And we know in the co defendant's case, when his
Speaker 10: attorney asked for discovery, they dropped the charges, so we
Speaker 10: wanted to know what was it, specifically from the crime lab,
Speaker 10: and rather than giving us that, they gad an offer
Speaker 10: of time served. And that is when Fay then had
Speaker 10: to make a really difficult and horrific choice of you know,
Speaker 10: do I want to keep pursuing my innocence claim in
Speaker 10: this federal court.
Speaker 7: If she did, she could lose the deal to be
Speaker 7: released based on time served. So she had to choose.
Speaker 1: Accept this chance to be free, knowing she would remain
Speaker 1: a felon or stay in prison and continue the potentially
Speaker 1: never ending fight for her own exoneration. On July sixteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, they accepted the time served offer and walked
Speaker 1: out of prison.
Speaker 4: To walk out of those gates. It was such a
Speaker 4: release that I was like, oh my god, I am out.
Speaker 4: Yet I had some emotions because I thought about the
Speaker 4: ones that I was leaving behind, and that was the
Speaker 4: life that I knew because I'd been there for over
Speaker 4: twenty summer, So you know, I had these mixed emotions.
Speaker 4: Yet I was so happy to be home with those
Speaker 4: that had been fighting to get me out and be
Speaker 4: around people other people.
Speaker 7: One of those people was Tiffany.
Speaker 4: She was gone. Ten years before I ever got out.
Speaker 4: But that whole ten years she was out, she constantly
Speaker 4: rode me, send me money, just was there for me faithfully,
Speaker 4: And that was something that I had never in my
Speaker 4: life experience. I had no one to be so genuine, authentic.
Speaker 4: It was just unbelievable. I was like, they don't make
Speaker 4: people like they make Tiffany anymore.
Speaker 1: Tiffany and Fay's relationship developed into a romantic one. These days,
Speaker 1: they travel back and forth to see each other. Fay
Speaker 1: lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and Tiffany out in rural Huntsville, Arkansas.
Speaker 8: I am country. I would rather to be in the
Speaker 8: woods than the city.
Speaker 3: Do you bring her to the woods?
Speaker 8: Yes, as much as possible, But and then she takes
Speaker 8: me to the city, Like, we have a fishing trip
Speaker 8: planned here pretty soon, so I want to I have
Speaker 8: to go get our tent.
Speaker 7: Wow, how's how's being in the woods?
Speaker 3: How's camping? I don't picture you as a camper?
Speaker 4: I am not. I am not. That's her. And so
Speaker 4: where she lives Huntsville, population seventy five. She's been there
Speaker 4: all her life. I don't think I would ever live
Speaker 4: in a country town like.
Speaker 3: I wish you could see your face right.
Speaker 4: Now, but uh yeah, hopefully in the future Tiffany and
Speaker 4: I could. We would live together and have our fur
Speaker 4: babies and the babies that you know that I desire
Speaker 4: to have it we could be a big family.
Speaker 1: They and Tiffany hope to have a family someday. But
Speaker 1: since they was resentenced and released, her conviction still stands,
Speaker 1: so she's technically still a convicted felon.
Speaker 4: Because of this felony, I cannot adopt, which is heartbreaking.
Speaker 4: Yet I'm hoping to maybe possibly have a surrogate, so
Speaker 4: that's the goal, and if not my niece, hopefully they
Speaker 4: can have babies for me something like that. And I
Speaker 4: also have three amazing babies. They are two Snauzers and
Speaker 4: one tiny teacup Chihuahua that are my babies.
Speaker 1: But as of adopting, life has been hard with the
Speaker 1: label convicted felon attached to her, even with the support
Speaker 1: of the MIP.
Speaker 7: When I do.
Speaker 4: Go for interviews or go to apply, I'm given a
Speaker 4: letter that you know, she's actually innocent of this crime.
Speaker 4: Yet we're still fighting to clear her name, and so
Speaker 4: it helps in some aspects, but I've been denied Howsen
Speaker 4: in spite of the letter. So sometimes it does and
Speaker 4: sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Fay currently works as a receptionist for Chevrolet in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: She also advocates for other wrongfully incarcerated people and is
Speaker 1: on the board of an organization which helps formally incarcerated
Speaker 1: women returning to society. Fay's only shot at exoneration is
Speaker 1: now clemency, and her first clemency petition from Arkansas Governor
Speaker 1: Asa Hutchinson was denied. She cannot apply again for another
Speaker 1: eight years.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm just so happy to be free. Yet
Speaker 4: I'm physically free, but.
Speaker 7: I'm not free.
Speaker 1: If you want to help Faye, go to change dot
Speaker 1: org and type in Fay Jacobs to ask Governor Asa
Speaker 1: Hutchinson to pardon Faye.
Speaker 7: Next time.
Speaker 1: On Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Hank Skinner, I'm.
Speaker 11: Sitting there looking at think Gurnie that they're fixing to
Speaker 11: put me on. I could see it through the door,
Speaker 11: the hand the door open, I could see the microphone,
Speaker 11: I could see the straps, arm boards, and how was
Speaker 11: absolutely convinced that I was fixing it die.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and
Speaker 1: Kevin Words, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
Speaker 1: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonia Paul, with additional production
Speaker 1: by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
Speaker 1: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
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Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one